Film Independent recently presented An Evening with… Mindy Kaling before an enthusiastic, female-dominated audience inside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater. The crowd was there to experience the wonder that is Kaling, a trailblazing comedian, actress, writer, producer and creator of The Mindy Project, now in its fourth season on Hulu.
After a screening of episode 13, “When Mindy Met Danny” (which Kaling wrote) film critic and curator Elvis Mitchell welcomed the guest of honor for an insightful hour-long conversation on several subjects, including The Mindy Project, her latest book, Why Not Me?, the writing process, her love of theater and The Intern. From Kaling’s stories and anecdotes, we collected eight of our favorite moments/lines/insights from the conversation.
1. Kaling likes her wine.
While most stars at these types of events are usually politically correct with water bottles at their sides (presumably filled with water) we knew from the outset that this talk was going to be a little different. After the screening, the production crew put out two chairs, a table, two wine glasses and a bottle of wine chilling in an ice bucket for the conversation. We were too far back to read the vintner or vintage, but it was a white—with a screwcap. (As if the audience didn’t have reason enough to adore her.)
2. On that move to Hulu…
Once the glasses were poured, Mitchell asked Kaling about her show’s transition from three seasons on FOX to its fourth, now on Hulu. She noted that Hulu allows her “total creative freedom” and pointed to the winter finale “When Mindy Met Danny” as an example. The episode clocked in at 28 minutes, and that’s a big deal for a network, where half-hour comedies are generally 22 minutes to make room for the commercials. The episode also ended—SPOILER ALERT—with the lead heroine in a puddle of tears to Sam Smith’s “Stay with Me” playing in the background—something that doesn’t usually happen on holiday-themed episodes of comedy series.
3. The writing process doesn’t get any easier.
Even after writing 24 episodes for The Office and now for The Mindy Project, Kaling admitted that writing is still torturous: “I have the same blind panic when I write. Even at The Office, even [after] my 22nd episode of the show, I was, ‘I’m f*cked, I’m a fraud, what am I doing here?’”
4. Guns and violence…
If there were a theme to emerge from the hour-long conversation, it’s that Kaling’s really really into a certain type of film/TV genre (and Quentin Tarantino). She had just come from a screening of The Revenant. “I love The Revenant because one of my favorite movies is Kill Bill. I am obsessed with vengeance, and I am obsessed with justice.” (She also hilariously derailed the conversation a few times to quiz Mitchell about his friendship with Quentin Tarantino.)
The conversation later returned to the same topic, and she explained further, “Because of my show, I really like violent dramas, so Peaky Blinders, I love—to the point where I was talking about it too much in the [writer’s] room, and everyone’s like, ‘No one’s seen this, we hate that you talk about it.’” Still, she was profuse in her love for the BBC 1920s-set gangster drama. “I love how incomprehensible Tom Hardy is in that show. But he’s almost incomprehensible in everything he does…” To which Mitchell added, “We can almost understand him in The Revenant.”